U.S. immigration bill pins big hopes on dairy cows

* New farm worker visas could pull in Republican votes

* Illegal immigrants' fate tied to dairy provision

* Help for western ranchers could lure senators too

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 3 From the technology and
tourism industries to the fruit growers of California, there is
something for almost everyone in the sprawling immigration
legislation that the U.S. Senate will start debating this month.

But for supporters of this controversial bill who are
searching for a solid bloc of votes in the Senate, there might
be no better way than through a provision embedded in the law
that gives dairy farmers better access to foreign labor.

The carefully constructed Senate strategy banks on trying to
win over Republican senators representing states scattered
throughout the country and where the $35 billion U.S. dairy farm
industry contributes heavily to local economies.

Backers hope that they will lure these conservative senators
- maybe more than a dozen of them - to vote for a bill that they
otherwise might not support because of what critics consider its
"amnesty" for the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the
United States.

For example, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Pennsylvania are among
the top five dairy-producing states and together there are four
Republican senators representing them.

"It is a way of giving something to those who may see parts
of the bill as undesirable and let them say, 'At least I'm going
to be helping the agriculture industry in my state,'" said
former Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida, who was a
player in a failed, 2007 attempt at passing an immigration bill.

"Without it, it goes nowhere," added Martinez, who now is an
executive with JPMorgan Chase & Co.

It may seem absurd that the fate of the first major
immigration reform effort in 27 years could hinge partially on
the country's 9.2 million lactating cows.

But in a deeply divided U.S. Congress where accomplishing
anything is difficult, this rare, bipartisan bill is a case
study in trade-offs, including the dairy provision.

If the gamble pays off in the Senate, supporters hope that
the dairy provision might also entice some rural Republicans in
the more conservative House of Representatives, where
Republicans control the chamber and the battle over immigration
will be even tougher.

'ELBOW DEEP'

The dairy industry has been lobbying for years for easier
access to foreign workers, armed with studies designed to
demonstrate the economic harm caused by the current system,
which allows visas for foreigners to do seasonal work but not
for the year-round needs of dairies.

The bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee would
create three-year visas, renewable for another three years.

For a flavor of how important the raging debate over
immigration reform is to rural America, one needs to drive only
a few hours outside of Washington.

Brubaker Farms in south-central Pennsylvania has about 930
cows, mostly Holsteins: those iconic black and white beasts that
many consider to be the world's best milk producers.

The Brubaker family has operated the dairy farm on 1,800
acres (730 hectares) over the past century, a period that saw
the country's demographics change with more and more young
people gravitating to cities.

For those staying in rural areas, fewer Americans now want
to work on dairy farms "with their arms past the elbow in a
heifer when she's giving birth at 3 a.m.," said Craig
Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for
Immigration Reform, a farm industry group.

Tony Brubaker said enactment of immigration legislation
would ensure a steady workforce for his operation. "Before I
started hiring immigrant workers, it was nearly impossible to
keep all positions full," he said.

By 2009, 62 percent of the nation's milk supply came from
farms using immigrant labor, almost exclusively from Mexico,
according to an industry survey.

Even so, for Brubaker and other dairy farmers, hiring
immigrant labor can be complicated. That is because agricultural
immigrant visas are mainly aimed at providing short-term work
stints of six to 10 months to accommodate farmers needing field
hands to help with seasonal crops.

But in dairy operations, where laborers are needed around
the clock 365 days a year, the current visa system is clunky at
best, Brubaker said. "It takes six months before they're decent
at the job. And it takes two years before they're really good at
the job," he said of new employees.

In response, the Senate bill would let dairy operators hire
foreign workers for three years at a time to milk their cows,
tend to sick livestock and do other farm chores.

Across the country in southeastern Idaho, Tony Vander Hulst
of Westpoint Farms said that while he is fully staffed with 55
mostly Hispanic workers tending to 5,000 cows, "At times it (the
workforce) gets scarce."

For example, he said, when law enforcement officials
conducted a sweep of a local market a few years ago, picking up
employees of other farms, "That created a scare among the
Hispanic community," making it harder to find workers.

For all of U.S. agriculture, at least half of the 1.1
million farm workers are undocumented, according to government
estimates.

Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho, asked by Reuters
whether the dairy provision could help capture his vote, said he
would not decide based on any single issue.

But, expressing the sentiment of several Republican senators
interviewed by Reuters, Risch added, "Certainly, that's an
important provision. We also have a robust high-tech industry in
Idaho and it's just as important at the upper end as it is at
the lower end" of the labor market to update immigration law.

The bill is not being powered solely by prospects of easier
access to foreign labor to boost U.S. agricultural and high-tech
industries.

Democrats would achieve their long-sought goal of bringing
the 11 million undocumented residents "out of the shadows" where
they no longer would have to elude law enforcement. Such people
could then put more of their energies into finding legal
employment, integrating their families into American society and
ultimately gaining U.S. citizenship, advocates argue.

Meanwhile, Republicans see a chance to begin appealing to
growing numbers of Hispanic voters, while also toughening border
security with around $6 billion in new investments.

CATTLE AND SHEEP TOO

Ranchers who graze cattle and sheep on western range lands
also want the agriculture visa system retooled because they face
many of the same labor problems as dairy farmers.

"The mountain West is in our judgment pretty pivotal" to the
Senate successfully passing an immigration bill this year,
Regelbrugge said.

And so, he hopes, the bill could also put in play senators
from Utah and Wyoming, which together have four Republican
senators. And then there is Montana, with two Democratic
senators maintaining moderate profiles in their
Republican-leaning states.

In the free-wheeling Senate debate that begins in about a
week, nobody is sure which provisions will stand and which might
come under attack and be removed.

"Every aspect of the bill is in jeopardy of potentially
being targeted" for change, Regelbrugge fretted. He included the
farm worker provision, which some may argue singles out
agriculture for more favorable treatment than other industries.

Any major changes to the bill could fracture the coalition
of urban Democrats and "dairy" Republicans that supporters see
as essential to this legislative fight.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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